More young Singaporeans are striving to keep dialects alive

The demand for dialect classes in Singapore has shot up in the last two to three years. However, what is surprising is that the bulk of this demand comes from an unlikely group – the younger Singaporeans.

The key driving force behind this trend is largely due to young Singaporeans wanting to bridge the linguistic gap between the generations.

One such example is National University of Singapore (NUS) Pharmacy undergraduate, Ms Sarah Xing, who signed up for a course in Cantonese, a Chinese dialect, in hopes to be able to communicate better with her elderly, Cantonese-speaking patients.

“With our aging population, a high percentage of the patients will be elderly. And if I can speak their language and understand their situation, I can provide better care to them.”

– NUS Pharmacy undergraduate, Ms Sarah Xing

Similarly, she mentioned that learning Cantonese will allow her to communicate better with her maternal grandmother. Like other elderly Singaporeans, her grandmother is able to speak Mandarin but often lapses into her native dialect when struggling to find the right Mandarin words.

Bridging the generation gap

Based on the 2015 General Household Survey conducted by the Department of Statistics, Chinese dialects such as Cantonese, Teochew and Hokkien, are still largely spoken by elderly aged 55 years and older.

Photo: 2015 General Household Survey

Additionally, the statistics also show that the use of Chinese dialects among households has been on the decline.

Dr Francesco Perono Cacciafoco, lecturer in linguistics and multilingual studies at the Nanyang Technological University, mentioned that there is a possibility that dialects might lose their place in Singapore as the years go by. However, he expressed that there is still hope if young people in Singapore are leading the cause.

Chinese clan associations in Singapore such as the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan (SHHK) and Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan have noted an increasing enrolment in their language classes in recent years. Students range in age from 17 to 40-years-old, a demographic that grew up with little exposure to Chinese dialects.

Photo: Viriya Community Services

You can bridge the gap with the older generation by signing up for a dialect language class with groups like Viriya Community Services that run classes every three months teaching conversational Hokkien, Teochew or Cantonese.